Home networking is the collection of elements that process, manage, transport, and store information, enabling the connection and integration of multiple computing, control, monitoring, and communication devices in the home. Until recently, the home network has been largely ignored. However, the rapid proliferation of personal computers (PCs) and the Internet in homes, advancements in telecommunications technology, and progress in the development of smart devices have increasingly emphasized the last one hundred feet of any consumer-related network (i.e., the home). Accordingly, there has been surge in the adoption and practice of home networking. There are several trends that contribute to the growing need and the potential success of home networking.
The Internet elicits many changes in the workplace. These changes, in turn, create a growing need for home networks. Driven by a changing corporate culture, cost cutting measures, and clean-air acts that demand less travel to and from work, many employers have implemented telecommuting practices. To implement these practices, information technology (IT) managers must not only connect telecommuters to the corporate local-area network (LAN) and intranet but provide voice solutions as well. To conduct business properly, telecommuters must access files and stored network information and therefore require a high-quality, secure voice network able to sustain multiple lines. For this reason and others Internet access in the home is on the climb.
Coupled with an increase in Internet use, there is technological change occurring in the average home. An increasing number of smart devices are being developed and deployed that allow users to control and monitor events in consumer-based appliances, home electronics, and home security systems. As these devices become more common, a need arise for a home networking strategy that will allow data, voice, and smart devices to be accessible throughout the home and remotely at any time. The key to the prevalence of home networking, however, is the ability of home networking product and service providers to deliver products and/or services that are simple and reliable to consumers. If the process is not maintenance-free, easy to use, and quick to install, it will not likely be embraced by consumers. While consumers desire the sophisticated functionality of a local area network—data networking, shared Internet access, and smart device control—they do not wish to engineer or administer a complex system. Generally, consumers seek plug-and-play functionality, such that—much like telephones—networked PCs should just work.
Currently, there are several home networking solutions available to consumers. Wired home-networking technologies were the first introduced solutions. These early networks, however, are bulky, largely point-to-point loop—or star-based systems. For the most part, such systems are tethered systems limiting the mobility and flexibility of their users. Such system is depicted, in part, in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, a twisted copper pair (e.g. Ethernet) network is established using router/switch 142. The router/switch 142 is physically connected to a first computer 148 and a second computer 144. In operation, the router switch acts to route data between the computers and/or that originates from a third source such as the Internet 102. In Internet context, the router/switch 142 cooperates with some broadband modem 120 to switch data packets to and from cooperating Internet computers. Generally, copper-pair or coaxial-based transport systems are bi-directional and typically have a high degree of reliability. They require the use of Category 5 (CAT5) or bulky coaxial cabling, and are typically expensive to install between rooms after a house has been built. Some home networks have Ethernet cabling, but because of its expense and difficulty to install, few have chosen to use it.
It is worth noting that twisted pair Ethernet solutions are often deployed in a star topology with a collapsed backbone. This is typically called an Ethernet switch. In this topology, individual Ethernet connections are star-connected to a central switch or switches that provide many times the bandwidth among endpoints that a single connection could support in a broadcast environment. For this reason, coaxial Ethernet deployments have all but disappeared.
A second home networking solution contemplates the use of alternating current power-line based transport elements. Alternating current (AC) power lines are readily available as network transport elements throughout the home. They are used as transport facilities to send and receive discrete frequency-based control, monitoring, and communications messages to smart devices that manage lighting and environmental systems (“turn off,” “turn on,” and “dim”). They also are used as voice-communication elements for telephone extensions, computer-modem access, and intercom devices through standard electrical outlets. Recently, data solutions at Ethernet speeds have emerged for power line networks and adapters allow substitution of traditional Ethernet installations with power line technology. Throughput for any application requiring higher data rates can be a challenge, because the power line technologies do not allow for a collapsed backbone, like was described for Ethernet. Instead, the technology is akin to the coaxial Ethernet broadcast backbones. Even with this limitation, this technology remains useful and is becoming more prevalent in homes—perhaps largely because of the convenience of electrical outlets that are plentiful compare to the other outlets in the home.
An alternative solution takes advantage of using the existing telephone wiring found in most homes. The Home Phone Network Alliance (Home PNA) is one organization dedicated to the development of standards and specifications for interoperable home-networked devices that use existing twisted-pair phone wiring. However, current implementations of HomePNA work like the power line technologies and do not support multiple independent phone wiring topologies on a customer premises for providing switched data and routed network services. The current implementation of HomePNA limits the ability of providing bandwidth intensive, security sensitive, or Quality of Service (QOS) demand applications. Packet telephone and multimedia content delivery are two such services that would benefit from a HomePNA switched network architecture.
From the foregoing it is appreciated that there exits a need for a bandwidth and topology management device that overcomes the prior art.